Former Indian player Kris Srikkanth questioned the Mumbai Indians (MI) captain Hardik Pandya batting ahead of the in-form Sherfane Rutherford in the IPL 2026 match against the Gujarat Titans (GT) on April 20. Notably, Hardik struggled once again with the bat, falling for a 16-ball 15 in the end overs.

He said on his YouTube channel post-game: “The ball isn’t meeting his bat at all. He scratched around fully again. Given Sherfane Rutherford is coming so late after him, if I was MI, I would have played Corbin Bosch instead of Rutherford. The one over Rutherford came to bat, even Santner could have done. Anyway, Rutherford can’t do anything against the yorker length delivery. I wouldn’t have played him in the 11 at all.”

READ HERE: Shubman Gill Breaks Silence On ODI Futures Of Rohit Sharma And Virat Kohli

Kris Srikkanth also lauded MI youngster Tilak Varma for pacing his innings to perfection en route to a stunning century in the GT clash, helping MI post a good total. He started slowly, scoring only 19 off his first 22 deliveries, before smashing 82 off his next 23 balls as well.

“He almost scored a boundary off every ball in the second half of his innings. There was a strategic timeout after which he went berserk. There must have been something spoken there. His onslaught first started against Prasidh Krishna. It’s an amazing turnaround for Tilak Varma. Despite being under pressure, he made sure to get his eye in. After that, he saw it like a football,” said Srikkanth.

“To me, this was the best knock of this IPL. Considering the situation where they were struggling with the bat and had lost early wickets, and it being a must-win game for MI, this was the best knock of IPL 2026 so far. Even with Hardik Pandya there, only he was scoring. It was a proper one-man show,” he concluded.